HMS Curacoa (1854)

HMS Curacoa was a 31-gun Tribune-class screw frigate launched on 13 April 1854 from Pembroke Dockyard.[1]

History
Name: HMS Curacoa
Ordered:
  • 4 April 1851
  • Reordered on 18 July 1851
Builder:
Laid down: January 1852
Launched: 13 April 1854
Completed: By 14 November 1854
Decommissioned: 1869
Fate: Broken up by 17 July 1869
General characteristics
Type: Tribune-class screw frigate
Tons burthen: 1,569 24/94 bm
Length:
  • 192 ft (59 m) (overall)
  • 163 ft 4 in (49.8 m) (keel)
Beam: 43 ft (13 m)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 11 in (3.94 m)
Propulsion:
  • Sails
  • 2-cyl. horizontal single expansion
  • Single screw
  • 350 nhp
  • 1,354 ihp
Speed: 10.75 knots (19.91 km/h) (under steam)
Complement: 300
Armament:
  • Middle deck: 20 x 32pdrs (56cwt/9ft 6in)
  • Upper deck: 10 x 32pdrs (42cwt/8ft 0in) + 1 x 10in (85cwt/9ft 4in) on pivot

She served in the Mediterranean Station between 1854 until 1857 and was in the Black Sea during the Crimean War. She was part of the Channel Squadron between 1857 until 1859. On 24 October 1858, Curacoa ran aground on the Pelican Reef, off Smyrna, Ottoman Empire. All on board were rescued. She was refloated on 26 October with assistance from USS Macedonian and taken in to Smyrna on 28 October.[2][3][4][5] On 4 February 1859, Curacoa collided with the British merchant ship Fleta in the English Channel.[6] She then was sent to the North America and West Indies Station and served between 1859 until 1862. Afterwards she went to the Australia Station, where she remained until 1866. She was the flagship of the Australia Station from 20 April 1863 until May 1866, having had her armament reduced to 23 guns in 1863.

Curacoa Island is named after HMS Curacoa (1854)

During the invasion of Waikato, her company provided reinforcements for the Naval Brigade at Auckland, New Zealand on 2 October 1863. She was sent back to Britain in 1866 and was broken up in 1869.[7]

See also

Notes

  1. Bastock, p.41.
  2. "Latest Telegrams". The Standard (10677). London. 3 November 1858. p. 3.
  3. "Latest News". Birmingham Daily Post (238). Birmingham. 4 November 1858.
  4. "Mercantile Ship News". The Standard (10683). London. 10 November 1858. p. 7.
  5. "The Running Ashore of the Curacoa". Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle (3090). Portsmouth. 24 December 1858.
  6. "Mercantile Ship News". The Standard (10759). London. 7 February 1859. p. 7.
  7. "HMS Curacoa". Retrieved 28 March 2010.

References

Curacoa in the Fitzroy Dock in 1865
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